Mist

[Delirium]

As most of you probably have noticed by now, I have trouble with my connection. I have a cable modem that uses a dynamic addressing scheme. Since I previously had a cable modem that used a fixed address, I suspect the dynamic scheme is partly to blame. But other things about the new service are also troubling. The download speed is only about 1k/sec, and I seem to recall getting better download speeds with a dial-up modem. Then, last night, my cable connection cut-out entirely, and hadn't come back by the time I left this morning. So, can dynamic addressing cause dropped connections? How do you guys connect and are you happy with it?

[Kiriel]

Have you tried talking to your cable company about it? You really shouldn't be having those kinds of problems- occasional connection drops are one thing, but a cable modem shouldn't have the kind of intermittent outages you have.

Who is your cable company? Do you know if you're using DHCP or PPPoE? It might also be some sort of network problem- is the rest of your Internet connection working when you get dropped from CL?

My connection is DSL and it's generally pretty reliable although lately I've had a lot of intermittent lag that I haven't been able to track down the cause of. Nothing as bad as what you've been experiencing though.

[Nuvali]

I'm running cable with dynamic IP, as well. Everything runs pretty smoothly for me, most of the time. I've experienced a few quirks here and there, and a couple temporary outages over the past few months, but nothing that a static situation would have helped.

There's a slew of possible explanations why you are getting bad connections, but most likely, it's something on their end. Either that, or 13 year-old Billy down the street is sucking all of your bandwidth downloading warez.

I recommend that you persistantly bug the hell out of your cable company. Maybe use the phrase "switch to DSL" a few times in your conversation, just to get their attention. :-)

[Nunul]

Ohhhhh...the ole "switch to DSL" threat.
I have been going around in circles with Verizon DSL and Verizon Phone company for weeks now. During peak time, I am having one hell of a time keeping a steady connection...even tho DSL is supposed to be a direct line to the phone company and you are not sharing bandwidth. Like Kiriel, I have come up empty so far as to what the hell the problem could be. Verizon-A is pointing at Verizon-B. And neither will speak with the other to resolve their mutual customers' problem.

\action sighs heavily

[Nugget]

hey nunul switch to at&t cable it is tons better than dsl I had dsl through qwest and I would have outages it really stunk plus verizon stinks. :P

[Kiriel]

Both cable and DSL have problems, it just depends on where you live and who you're with. I have had @Home and DSL, and if you have a good experience, just thank your lucky stars, because you're the fortunate one. One thing I prefer about DSL, less obnoxious restrictions on what I can do with my line.

As much as I am annoyed by the issues with cable and DSL, I would never go back to a modem (except for those 3 weeks of such bad speed using @Home that a modem would have been faster).

[Goric]

Its gotten so bad lately that I dont want to go out hunting for fear that I will fog at a bad time and jeapordize the hunt.

I still use a modem. I hate it but I get on for free.

aa compares free and $40 a month. hmm Free....$40...Free...$40

I think I'll stay with Free for now

Sir Goric

[Delirium]

Well, I'm still not sure what the problem is, but....

We had an older mac (7100) serving as a hub, running surf doubler. This isn't stricly approved by the cable company, but it worked. The ethernet card in the 7100 no longer sees the rest of our home network :(, so I've been playing the past few days with the cable modem plugged directly into my powerbook - and I no longer seem to be getting drop-outs every 15 min.

BTW - we will be going on a vaction for a few days - I hope to be back for the next clan meeting (it should be a good one ;-), but dont expect to see me before then.

[Kiriel]

Have a nice vacation! BTW, you're probably better off using one of those Internet sharing boxes to share the connection rather than dedicating a computer to it. The low end ones are about $80-150 and they give you a firewall and share your Internet connection and are easy to administer via a web interface. SMC makes a good one that doesn't cost too much called the Barricade.

[Goric]

I'll miss your seeing you smiling face and your great yell Delirium. Looks forward to seing you when you get back !

Sir Goric